BOK.ENG.AD1796.v2

History of America Vol II

A historical review of the American continents beginning with European contact with accompanying maps of the lands found in the appendix.
The first edition of this book was originally published in 1777 during the rising tensions between England and their colonies in North America. The author, William Robertson, makes note of this in his preface:

"While [the British colonies] are engaged in civil war with Great Britain, inquiries and speculations concerning their ancient forms of policy and laws, which exist no longer, cannot be interesting. The attention and expectation of mankind are now turned towards their future condition. In whatever manner this unhappy contest may terminate, a new order of things must arise in North America, and its affairs will assume another aspect. I wait, with the solicitude of a good citizen, until the ferment subside, and regular government be re-established, and then I shall return to this part of my work, in which I had made some progress" (spelling standardized).

Robertson acknowledged the shifting compositions of the Americas due to the British and colonial tensions, and therefore saw it necessary to not document contemporary history until it had fully unfolded and "a new order of things" arose.

William Robertson was a "Scottish historian and Presbyterian minister" who is considered "one of the most important British historians of the 18th century" ("William Robertson"). While his coverage of American history includes some description of pre-European peoples, his language is ethnocentric in his gaze of indigenous peoples.

In 1796 William Robertson's son published the rest of his father's unpublished works post mortem, found in books IX and X, describing the history of Virginia to the year 1688 and the history of New England to the year 1652.
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“William Robertson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, September 15, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Robertson.

1777 AD

William Robertson

Printed for A. Strahan; T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies (Sucessors to Mr. Cadell) in the Strand; and E. Balfour, Edinburgh.

William Robertson, Jr.

North America

Mesoamerica

South America

Americas

18th Century

Print

English History of Writing Collection See all items with this value

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English

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783 See all items with this value

Historiography

Robertson, William, 1721-1793. The History of America. Vol 2. 2 Vol. London: Printed for W. Strahan; T. Cadell, in the Strand; and J. Balfour, at Edinburgh, 1796.